Looking for some Christian anons to give me some advice. I come from a very devout baptist/evangelical family in the American south. For at least ten years I have had thoughts of leaving the evangelical church and joining a more traditional Christian denomination. When I was younger this was mostly due to the whole culture around these types of churches (rock band worship services, general informality of the congregants, etc.) however, more recently, I have had more serious convictions due to theological and moral disagreements. There were times when I would walk out of Sunday church with my family feeling legitimately angry because of something that was said or done. That being said, I've now finally moved out of my parents house for good so I have a little bit more freedom to choose where or if I go to church. I have considered attending a Catholic Church, but I have really no idea what to expect or even if I would be accepted. Another issue I have is my parents are super hardcore evangelicals like I said, and I think they might legitimately disown me if they found out I was attending a Catholic Church or had been confirmed Catholic. Any Christians have any advice to give on this? Anyone here been in a similar situation?
>>34841159i'm not Christian myself but Catholics in my experience are generally quite kind, as long as you're willing to learn you'll probably have no problems being accepted. One of my close friends recently became Catholic and didn't have any issues. Especially since there are relatively few catholics in the US, so I'd imagine they're always happy to have new members, though this probably depends on where you are.How bad would it be for your parents to disown you? If you really care about your parents, I'd try to keep it a secret, shouldn't be too hard considering you don't live with them anymore.
>>34841159If you want useful advice, I think you're going to have to tell us exactly what your theological objections to the evangelical church are. Without that information we can't tell you if you'll like Catholicism any better.
>>34841293I don't believe in dispensationalism, the rapture, premillenialism, and most of their eschatological views. I also slightly disagree with their views on salvation and sanctification (I do believe salvation can be lost and apostasy is real). I dislike their overall lack of reverence, especially with respect to communion.
>>34841398I think you'll find Catholicism too polytheistic for your tastes. Have you considered the Anglican/Episcopalian church?
>>34841569“Polytheistic “ propaganda
>>34841708Oh, what, Catholics don't pray to saints or to the Holy Virgin? Yes, they fucking do.
>>34841569I have actually. The problem with them is that the mainline denominations are often theologically (and politically) quite liberal and have a track record of supporting issues that are firmly unbiblical such as abortion. I was also considering attending a confessional Lutheran church, but reconsidered after reading the recent FARA leaks about how many of them in my state were being funded by Israel to push propaganda. I don't agree with everything that Catholics believe, I particularly have a problem with the whole submission to the pope thing (which I know is kind of major, and I recognize the irony of that), however it seems to be less compromised than most Protestant churches, and isn't as niche or LARP-y as something like the Eastern Orthodox churches.
>>34841159yea i get you. thankfully catholics are pretty nice in my experience. around the first few times i had ever attended mass i felt the same kind of worry about being accepted, i thought it would be really formal and i’d constantly have to worry about crossing some line i didn’t know about and it’d be super judgy but it’s really not. i remember seeing some dude there wearing a college hoodie once and feeling like 10x more at ease.if you spend too much time online around christian larp you might think people irl are going to be like that. they aren’t. i’d honestly say just figure out any big contentions you might have with catholicism and then see if those things are even true. there is so much slander out there it’s ridiculous and i am guilty of falling for a lot of it. i’m talking like quotes from a heretic with the name scratched out and a saint’s written in its place just for the sake of turning people away from catholicism.be careful and don’t immediately go balls deep just because you want to get as far away from irreverent evangelical church as possible and this is new and exciting. i wrestled with a few catholic beliefs for a while before actually making up my mind about it. if you have no clue what you agree with, don’t be afraid to admit it. i think keeping an honest open mind is the only way you’ll be able cooperate with God and end up where you need to be.
>>34843114i was never in a similar situation with hardcore evangelical parents that would disown a catholic but i will say that reading kierkegaard’s fear and trembling helped me with my resolve in situations like that. particularly the bit where he’s talking about Jesus saying to “hate” your family. he rejects the interpretation that you hear sometimes of “just love those around you less than you love God” because we ought to strive towards perfect love for both people like our parents AND God, not be lukewarm to one and only love the other. so perfect love for your parents and perfect love for God simultaneously has the potential to come out as an act of hate according to regular ethics when its really love. like abraham loved isaac and he loved God but still had to resolve to kill him out of his duty to God.i probably didnt summarize that well but basically, i think you love your parents more if you embrace whatever they might do to you when you pursue God. if you remain complacent, it won’t appear to them as though you hate them, but you’re only doing real spiritual harm to yourself and maybe even to them by doing so. it’ll probably be hard, but Christ told us that if you’re gonna build a tower you first gotta sit down and count the cost to see if you can finish it. and i know God can and will give you the strength to finish it if you’re willing. i’ll be praying for you, God bless you anon
>>34841159I'm a cradle Catholic so never experienced this but basically you go through OCIA to get into the Catholic church (you of course can attend mass but in order to partake in the Eucharist you must first become Catholic in the spiritual sense). Praying for you to grow in holyness and wisdom.
Not a prot, but I was raised Catholic (light) and then returned to the faith on my late 20's. I felt just like you, and I would leave mass. Novus ordu has just become prot evangelical cringe with guitar songs and pro- imigration homily and women mis-reading scripture and female altar servers. I started attending traditional Latin Mass. There's basically no community here in Europe, but I know it's very solid in the US.
